Smoked Out

Updated Dec. 3, 1999 12:01 a.m. ET

Nobody can question that tobacco has become democratically unpopular, so much so that 45 million smokers might as well not exist as far as politicians are concerned. But we're still a country of laws, thank heaven.

This week the Supreme Court heard arguments on the Food and Drug Administration claim that, because the cigarette companies knew about nicotine, Congress must have intended the FDA to regulate cigarettes as a "drug" all along. In other words, the tobacco industry has escaped regulation until now only...